I’ve been wondering since then, who it is we think Dunedin needs to move here so that we can (continue to) be one of the world’s great small cities?
The evidence shows that Dunedin has been ageing quite rapidly.
In the last year we have all seen how hard it is for the hospitality sector to find and keep enough staff to maintain their pre-Covid opening hours.
The buses are struggling to recruit staff. Social services (at least some of us) are struggling to recruit workers. The health sector seems to be beside itself with recruitment issues.
Dunedin needs younger people to want to move here to work in our businesses, to fill our schools, and to contribute to our community.
And they need cheaper housing than the stock we’ve been offering. And not student-quality housing, but warm, dry, healthy homes.
For those of you who, like me, have done their time in a character home, with the uninsulated walls, hard to heat layout, oddly laid out rooms, poor storage and an ever expanding and expensive list of repairs and upgrades; well, you will understand that families on average incomes need newer homes.
They need new homes, close to work, close to schools, close to services and facilities — with the upside that this will also reduce carbon emissions and traffic.
Of course, we should also be thinking through why the people who live here already, who haven’t been able to get on to the property ladder, are not equally deserving of a chance at home ownership too.
If we have grand old homes that we should preserve for particular historical, design, or rarity values, then by all means identify and protect those.
But being one of the world’s great small cities is about liveability, and liveability is about housing affordability and proximity to city life.
And that means density in urban planning and design, so bring it on.
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